VSIN Tonight

Wes Reynolds is co-host of golf betting show Long Shots with Matt Brown and Kelley Bydlon as well as VSiN Tonight with Matt Youmans. Wes was born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana and is a proud alum of Indiana University having earned a bachelor's degree in Marketing and Business Management plus a master's in Sport Management. He's had various stints working in sports industry for the Indiana Pacers, Indiana Fever, Indiana Firebirds (Arena Football League) and Indiana University Athletics. My First Bet: "I filled out my first parlay card when I was 10 years old. My late mother was a manager at a small family restaurant and one of her regular customers ran a business on the side and she would pay $5 every week to buy me a parlay card to fill out with all the weekend College and NFL games. Needless to say, I've had the sports betting bug ever since." My Passions: "We change the 'what do you want to be when you grow up' answer every week when we're kids. One of the main things I wanted to be as a kid was a radio disc jockey. I listened to and monitored the American Top 40 every single Saturday morning. Unfortunately, I never pursued broadcasting as a career so I never got to be the next Casey Kasem. Nevertheless, I'm grateful for the opportunity to merge three different passions - sports, sports betting and broadcasting - here with VSiN." Favorite Teams: Indiana Hoosiers, Indianapolis Colts, Cincinnati Reds, Butler Basketball Best Sporting Event I've Attended: Sunday, January 21, 2007 for the AFC Championship Game. The New England Patriots had pretty much owned the Colts over the last few years. The Colts were down 21-6 at halftime and were getting the ball first to start the second half. If they didn't score on the opening drive, it was a wrap. Eventually the Colts tied the game but lost the lead and then Dominic Rhodes fumbles the ball at the 1-yard line and our hearts sunk but somehow center Jeff Saturday recovered the fumble in the end zone for a touchdown. Eventually the Colts took the lead and Marlin Jackson picked off Brady to clinch a trip to Super Bowl XLI. Even winning that Super Bowl, the AFC Championship win somehow meant more because the Colts had finally slain the dragon. Baddest of Bad Beats: the 2017 Scottish Open golf event. Had a ticket on a young English player named Callum Shinkwin. It was a 290/1 at an offshore shop. He had just missed his birdie on 17 by an inch but still had a one-shot lead going to the Par 5 18th. A nice, easy par would clinch the tournament. He smashed his drive down the center of the fairway so there's no way he can lose it from there, right? Next, he overshoots the green and then nearly chipped into the bunker. Nonetheless, he still has just a 4-footer to save par and win. He misses the putt and then goes on to lose the playoff to Rafael Cabrera-Bello, who had shot the course record that day and was in the clubhouse for a little over two hours. It was a total flier considering he had missed several straight cuts but the victory was his until it wasn't.

Youmans joined VSiN after 24 years in the newspaper business. He spent the past 16½ years at the Las Vegas Review-Journal, where he was the sports betting columnist and a 10-year beat writer covering UNLV basketball. He also covered the NFL and the Oakland Raiders' proposed relocation to Las Vegas. For the past seven years, he has co-hosted The Las Vegas Sportsline, a sports betting show, on ESPN Radio. He previously worked at newspapers in Indianapolis and suburban Chicago. He was a beat writer for the Bulls' final two NBA championship teams in 1997 and 1998 and also covered NFL (Bears), MLB (White Sox) and Big Ten basketball and football beats. A 1992 graduate of Purdue University, he relocated to Las Vegas in August 2000. Odds and ends … "When I lived in Chicago, almost every vacation I took was to Las Vegas. I loved the intense heat, the 24-hour lifestyle and the sports betting, so I drove out in a Jeep Wrangler and made the trip in 30 hours. It was the realization of a dream to get here, and I’m never leaving. "As a kid, as early as elementary school, I was intrigued by football handicapping. I would study the betting lines in the morning paper, circle the teams I thought would cover the spread and grade my picks by the scores in the next day’s paper. I ran football pools in high school and was a small-scale bookmaker for a while in college. "I had a letter to the editor published in Sports Illustrated early in high school. It was January 1986 after the Bears won the Super Bowl. But I never planned on a sportswriting career. I wanted to be a broadcaster and especially admired the styles of Howard Cosell and Brent Musburger. "I was a good athlete in every sport but not great in any one. My dream was to pitch in the minor leagues, preferably for the New York Yankees. I went to some tryout camps, but never made it. All I do now is golf in the summer. I like to drive to Death Valley and play 18 when the temperature hits 120. "My favorite book is Hell’s Angels by Hunter S. Thompson. "Evel Knievel, Ken Stabler and Jerry Tarkanian are my favorite characters in sports history. "I played intramural basketball at Purdue with Glenn Robinson when he was sitting out as a freshman. In the all-campus league, we won every game in a blowout until losing in the finals on a last-second shot. I met Drew Brees before his freshman season at Purdue. After talking with him for about 30 minutes one day, I predicted to a friend that Brees, an overlooked recruit at the time, was destined to be a star quarterback. "The most memorable stories I covered in Las Vegas: Greg Maddux of the Cubs winning his 300th game in San Francisco in 2004; Lon Kruger coaching the Rebels to the NCAA Sweet 16 with a win in Chicago in 2007; Bryce Harper’s journey to becoming MLB’s No. 1 pick in 2010. "My favorite actors are Clint Eastwood and Paul Newman. "Led Zeppelin is my favorite band. "My favorite vacation spots now are San Diego for the horse races, Hawaii and Jaco Beach, Costa Rica. "The most memorable game I covered was Game 6 of the NBA Finals in 1998, when Michael Jordan hit the winning shot in Salt Lake City."